Harvard Business Publishing

Excellent timely article, thanks.

Good quotes from this article are:

"They (co-workers or team members) cooperate more with others who are taking smart action".

"You don't have to lecture those caught up in a false urgency. SHOW them what is needed.

In each case, actions speak louder than words.

I'll definitely pick up this book on Amazon.

Thanks John. My organization faced many of the challenges that others are facing, and only when we took action (elevated a sense of urgency), did our engagement go up. People truly like being a part of the solution - especially in crisis.

P.S. We accomplished everything we set out to change. Our sense of urgency made a difference.

Mike

John Kotter, Bingo...your write up is truly gem of a piece,and perhaps the most fascinating article I have read over the years.A real sense of urgency doesn't mean to be reckless, or be in a state of flustered hurry in achieving some thing. "Urgency" tacitly implies working with passion,through inner strength and composure,with zeal and gusto and setting up the time lines for your self. If we take any task as a mission, and go full throttle to accomplish it, it would be least tiring and enervating. As spoken in Holy Geeta, "karma or the action" and deeds performed in true sense, keeps a man energetic, alive and spirited. If we analyse the psychology of a listless, idle and fatigued person, it is do to his "non doings", or the state of being in stupor,sloth and slumber in performing the acts. That is why, Geeta emphasis on the relevance and importance of actions, and that too with a sense of true urgency, or else life turns into complecancy with lackadaisical approach.

At times, we encounter people rushing and bustling in offices, carrying files, making Power point presentations, sipping cup of
coffee while multi-tasking....showing "urgency" but in reality they all keep moving in some vortex ,like a merry-go-round circus, with nothing achieved .At the end of the day, their results belie their acts. Such organisations dwindle soon and their so called busy staff get laid off, with absolute idleness and lethargy. But i beg to differ that true urgency is a positive sign whereas hyper-activity is a sign of nervousness and anxiety.

Nonetheless the article is indeed a motivational elixir, for any one to pep up his spirits and go ballistic.

Sandy Dheer
New Delhi India

John-- I have always admired your change books and articles. I am involved in the phsycial security business (when I am not writing books and articles!)and I have major obstacles in managing, training and selling because of the lack of urgency.

I just finsihed my own 6th and 7th books--"Do What Matters Most" and "Reality Repair." I usually have to plow through miles and tons of non-urgent, nonsensical BS to get to the Land of Simple where the true urgents wait to be discovered and worked on, with urgency.

My favorite quote to cut to the chase..."Nothing is more disaming than the truth spoken clearly and quietly." But all the good stuff is hidden away in the mountains of overload and the treadmill trap to the no-where zone.

Regards,

Bill Cottringer

John
Everything you say is true, unfortunately over the past years of plenty industries (particularly financial services and hi-tech) have failed to educate their management to be able to do little more than manage spread-sheets. What I see today in these industries is the culture of "busy is good" with no sense of purpose. This is where the real weakness lies; not with the leadership nor with the staff but in an incapable middle management. I saw an example of this with a major hi-tech company recently where the leadership sent out an excellent message saying that traditionally they had always hurt their competition most during downturns and that this was to be no exception. To the staff this was a message of hope and direction but all they got from their line management was a demand to provide a short term forecast every day!
The winners of the current recession will probably be those who invested wisely in the development of their line management over the past few years.
Regards
Dominic Rowsell
Milan

Very true.

Most people and companies have been over a period of time hiding behind lot of work, and not confronting that the leaders job is not to do lot of work, but to do all those critical work, on which the future of the organization is hinging.

Not dealing with the real issues, has organizations deal with a myriad of other issues which leave people tired and exhausted without really fulfilling their potential.

Manoj Onkar
President
IndiaNIC Infotech Ltd
www.indianic.com
manojonkar@gmail.com

Hi John,

Excellent article...Sense of Urgency is the keyword in bringing upon immediate and effective change in a given company.

Lisa K
http://www.coolmediaplacement.com

Good perspective. I'd also suggest that in addition to complacency and false urgency is fear (fear of failure, fear of leading, fear of making (wrong) decisions ... paralyzing fear). I've recently noticed that clients who were pretty clear-headed and smart-thinking during the 'good times' are absolutely challenged to make decisions or lead their companies or teams during these (admittedly, unprecedented in the global impact) 'bad times'.

Yes, I do agree you. The subject ot this discussion is actually disturbing.However, methink, the complacent need to be confronted, having lectured them and showed them how things are done!

Thanks!

Yes I do agree with you. The subject of this discussion is disturbing though! But methink the complacentshould be confronted having lectured them and shown them what to do.

Thanks

Gabriel Arigu

Hay John,,

Thanks for sharing such informative article with good title "An Astonishing Lack of Urgency (And What You Can Do About It)".

Regards,
http://www.hiddenbrains.com/